Page 14 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

“You don’t—uhhh—I’ve been applying for jobs at perfume shops,” I explain to Shane.

“Yeah, that sounds more…”

“But you’d rather make your own perfume and set up your Etsy store, right?”

“Well, an Etsy store is just the first step.”

“Whatever—you could do that if you stay at Shane’s. Right? The kids are still in school. She’d have time to do her own thing sometimes.”

“Sure, yeah. Are you—would that interest you?” he asks me.

I think we both want to kill my brother right now. “I mean. I wasn’t…”Would it interest me?“Yes. It would,” I hear myself saying. “If you… I don’t want you to feel…”

“No, I just—it’s a really good idea, actually, if you…”

“Yeah, I would…I mean, we should talk about this.”

“Sure, let’s talk about this.” He smiles and shakes his head at Nico.

Meanwhile, my brother’s attention has turned to a model-y looking blonde who is entering the store.

“Holy shit,” he mutters, craning his neck to watch her through the window. “I’ve seen that girl around. I’m gonna go get a green juice or…something.” He stands up, pats Shane on the shoulder. “You guys figure this nanny thing out. I’ll be back.” And the fucker’s gone.

Shane and Ijust stare at each other for a few seconds and then laugh.

“You wanna go ‘get a green juice or something’ too? I can sit here and drink coffee by myself. It’s fine.”

“I don’t think green juice is what I need right now.”

“Oh yeah? What do you need?”

“A three-day nap.”

“Have you always had insomnia?”

He shrugs. “Off and on since…since right before I got married, actually.” He says it as if he’s just realizing this now.

Interesting.

“And you need a nanny now because…”

“Because the regular nanny quit on Friday, so I have the kids while Margo and her husband are shooting a movie in Poland for a few months. I’m taking time off from work so I can be with the kids, but it’s been so long since I’ve had a good night’s sleep, I can barely function. The weekend was okay, but I almost didn’t get them to school on time today.”

Poor guy. This is a man who’s led a charmed life. He’s not used to feeling overwhelmed and out of sorts. I look down at his hands, both of them holding on to his cup of decaf coffee.

He needs so much more than caffeine to wake him up right now.

“Have you ever had your palm read before?”

He quirks a brow at me. “No. Have you?”

“Yes. By a woman in Versailles.”She told me that I met the love of my life before I was in high school.“I’m pretty sure everything she said was a crock of shit, but she was very charming and convincing.”

I can’t tell from his expression if he’s a cynic or not.

“Let me see your right hand.” I hold out both of my hands, palms up.

“Wait a minute,” he says, smirking and cocking his head to one side. “Areyouthe charming and convincing crock-of-shit palm reader from Versailles?”